Men Without Hats

Template:Short description Template:More citations needed Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox musical artist Men Without Hats are a Canadian new wave and synth-pop band, originally from Montreal, Quebec. Their music is characterized by the baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk, as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers and electronic processing. They achieved their greatest popularity in the 1980s with "The Safety Dance", a worldwide top ten hit (No. 3 in the United States), and "Pop Goes the World". After a hiatus for most of the 1990s and 2000s, Doroschuk reformed the band in 2010, and released Love in the Age of War (2012). The group, based in Vancouver, has continued to perform, including tour dates in support of the release of two studio albums, Men Without Hats Again (Parts 1 & 2), in 2021 and 2022, respectively.

History

Early days

Men Without Hats was founded in Montreal in 1977, initially as a punk rock band featuring Ivan Doroschuk (vocals), Pete Seabrooke (guitar), Dave Hill (bass), and John Gurrin (drums). In 1980, Doroschuk restarted Men Without Hats, giving the name to a new synthesizer-based group that he formed with Jérémie Arrobas (vocals, keyboards) and his brothers Stefan Doroschuk (bass) and Colin Doroschuk (guitar).<ref name=CanRock128/> Influences on this electronic outfit included Gary Numan, OMD and Ultravox.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Years earlier, while in high school, Arrobas and the Doroschuk brothers had played together in a short-lived band called Wave 21,<ref name=CanRock128/> along with drummer Igor Krichevsky.Template:Citation needed Many years later, Stefan would reuse the Wave 21 name for a country-pop band founded in the late 2010s with his daughters Mary-Lynn and Emmy-Lou.

The Doroschuk brothers, all three of whom are classically trained musiciansTemplate:Fact, were born in Champaign, Illinois while their father, a Canadian, was earning a doctoral degree.<ref name=69faces/> They moved to Montreal as young children when their parents returned to Canada.<ref name="69faces"/> The group's name came about because the brothers, following a self-described principle of "style before comfort", refused to wear hats during Montreal's cold winters, calling themselves "the men without hats".<ref name="ihistory"/>

In addition to the Doroschuks, the group has also included numerous additional members and guest or touring performers, many of whom quickly came and left during the first five years. Frontman and songwriter Ivan Doroschuk was the only constant member, while Stefan and Colin Doroschuk as well as Arrobas remained as relatively steady members through the early 1980s.<ref name=ihistory/>

Their first recording to be released was the 1980 EP Folk of the 80's. At this point, the band had changed styles from punk to new wave and officially consisted of Ivan (vocals, bass) and Arrobas (keyboards); also appearing on the EP were auxiliary members Stefan Doroschuk (bass), Roman Martyn (guitars), and Lysanne Thibodeau (backing vocals).Template:Citation needed

Shortly after the release of the debut EP, Martyn left and was replaced by Jean-Marc Pisapia, who stayed only a short time before leaving, and later founded The Box.<ref name=ihistory/> Pisapia was replaced briefly by Tracy Howe, who also left in short order, co-founding Rational Youth shortly after his departure.<ref name=ihistory/> Howe was replaced by keyboardist Mike Gabriel.<ref name=ihistory/> Arrobas and Gabriel left the group just before the recording of the next album.<ref name=CanRock170/>

International success

Ivan and Stefan (the latter now promoted to full membership status) subsequently recruited Allan McCarthy (percussion, electronics) to join the group, and recorded their 1982 full-length debut album Rhythm of Youth. The trio subsequently enjoyed a hit in Canada with "The Safety Dance", which peaked at No. 11 in May 1983. The song soon charted in the United States, spending four weeks at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a major hit on the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 6.<ref name=UKchart/> The song also reached the top ten in various other European countries, and peaked at No. 2 in New Zealand and No. 1 in South Africa, where it was the 11th highest-selling single of 1983.

Adding Pierre (who had guested on Rhythm of Youth) as an official fourth member, Men Without Hats released the album Folk of the 80's (Part III) in 1984. While lead single "Where Do The Boys Go?" was a top 40 hit in Canada, the album failed to match the international success of Rhythm of Youth.

In 1985, the band released the EP Freeways, consisting of multiple (and multi-lingual) remixes of one of their earliest efforts, Ivan and Arrobas's 1980 song "Freeways" (which had previously been released as a B-side in 1982). To support the EP, the group undertook a related tour, footage from which would later (in 2006) be released on DVD as Live Hats.

Reshuffling the line-up again, the band released the album Pop Goes the World in 1987 with Ivan, Stefan, and Lenny Pinkas. The song "Pop Goes the World" reached No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, No. 2 on the Canadian Singles Chart, and was No. 1 in Austria. The song was featured in the 1987 film Date with an Angel, and became the fifteenth biggest selling single in South Africa for 1988.

The group's next album, The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century, released in 1989, featured a cover of ABBA's song "SOS". The musicians on the album were essentially the touring band from Pop Goes the World, which included Bruce Murphy on keyboards and guitar, Marika Tjelios on bass, Richard Sampson on drums, and Heidi Garcia on vocals and keyboards.

The 1991 album Sideways, dominated by electric guitars instead of keyboards, revealed a dramatically different sound for the band, based in part on Ivan's exposure to Nirvana.<ref name=sharp2015/> Ivan said "We had a contractual obligation for one more album with PolyGram so I said to them, we'll take half of the allotted budget if they would allow us to do the record I wanted...so we did this guitar-oriented record but PolyGram were horrified. 'Men Without Hats without keyboards aren't going to work,' they claimed and that was the end of the story with PolyGram."<ref name=sharp2015/> The line-up on the album was Ivan on vocals, Félix Matte on lead guitar, John Kastner on rhythm guitar, Stefan on bass, Michel Langevin on drums and Colin on keyboards.

The group officially disbanded in 1993,<ref name="slaidins"/> after the career setback of failing to attract another American label as a result of the negative reception to Sideways. The band's final concert was a benefit to support a women's shelter in Montreal,Template:Citation needed with guitarist Denis D'Amour replacing Matte and Kastner, who both had left the band in 1992.Template:Citation needed

Projects during the 1990s and 2000s

After disbanding, lead singer Ivan and keyboardist Bruce Murphy went on to record several demos in 1993 for a concept album tentatively titled UFO's Are Real, which was never released.<ref name=presse/> Ivan recorded and released the solo album The Spell in 1997. Former band member Allan McCarthy died due to AIDS complications in 1995.<ref name=McCarthy1>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Under the name MacKenzie-Parker Gang, Stefan and Mack MacKenzie (of the Canadian alt-country band Three O'Clock Train) released Ride for Glory (1999), a post-modern Western-themed album.

After a 10-year hiatus, No Hats Beyond This Point was released in November 2003, returning the band to their early new wave style. In interviews around the time of the release, the band had mentioned a tour to support the release and a box set dedicated to the band's early years, which included the Folk of the 80's and Freeways EPs, the band's first two albums, a concert that was televised in 1985, unreleased demos and remixes of "The Safety Dance". None of this came to fruition, though, and the band split up once again in early 2004. This was the end of Stefan's involvement with Men Without Hats.

Colin released two albums with his side solo project "Centrifugal Force" ["Matter", "Excerpts from Matter"], then focued on opera and classical music, first serving as Artistic Director of Montreal's Northern Opera Theatre (85-91) and later as composer-in-residence at British Columbia's Ballet Victoria.<ref name="colin"/> His works include the ballets "Peter Pan", "Alice in Wonderland", operas "Medea Metamorphoses", an opera-dance project with the Victoria Symphony & the Coast-Saalish First Nation dancers "Heaven"; A full production of his opera Evangeline, based on a Longfellow poem, was produced by L'Opera de Rimouski in 2014, and was conducted by Doroschuk. <ref name=colin/>

In 2006, the Trilogie Musique label released a DVD titled Live Hats, featuring a 1985 live concert at Le Spectrum theater in Montreal on August 8, 1985 that had been televised. The release was unauthorized by the band, and it was pulled out of print.

Reformation in 2010

Ivan reformed Men Without Hats in 2010 as the frontman and lead vocalist, and was joined by musicians Derek Mansfield (synths) James Love (guitar) & Lou Dawson (synths) <ref name=sonicabuse/> The band returned on September 24, 2010, at the Rifflandia Music Festival in Victoria, British Columbia, performing ten songs and hits from the Men Without Hats back catalogue. The revived band was described by the Austin American-Statesman as "simply singer Ivan Doroschuk and hired guns"<ref name=gross/> and by Stefan as a "tribute band".<ref name=stefan/> Despite these initial reactions, the band's "Dance If You Want Tour" opened in March 2011 with a well-attended and positively received performance at Austin's South by Southwest event.<ref name=saxberg/>

In June 2011, Ivan told a festival audience that the group would record a new studio album, announcing the news at North by Northeast in Toronto. The album was originally to be titled Folk of the 80's (Part IV), but in March 2012, the band posted on Facebook that it would be called Love in the Age of War and would be released that summer.

Love in the Age of War, produced by Dave Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy, was released in June 2012 and received mostly favorable reviews. Ogilvie and Doroschuk set out to faithfully reproduce and update the group's classic synthesizer sound of the 1980s, intentionally making a follow-up album to 1982's Rhythm of Youth.<ref name=rollingstone/> According to Doroschuk, they pretended to be "working on a 24-track machine, for example, and not the virtual, infinity-plus-one number of tracks that you can get today. We went out and got the old synths that we used back then... the identical instruments, so it wasn't soft synths, it was really real synthesizers."<ref name="rollingstone"/>

By 2011, Doroschuk had taken on three of his touring musicians as full band members: James Love on guitar and backing vocals, Louise (Lou) Dawson on keyboards and backing vocals, and Mark Olexson on keyboards and backing vocals, all of whom performed on Love in the Age of War.<ref name="sharp2015"/><ref name="randynow"/> Colin Doroschuk also appeared on the album as a vocalist. After the album was recorded, Doroschuk doubled down on the band's synthesizer-heavy sound by replacing Olexson with Vancouver musician Rachel Ashmore, on keyboards and backing vocals, as the group's second synthesist.<ref name=randynow/><ref name=sonicabuse/>

Men Without Hats again toured the United States in 2013, as part of the 1980s-themed Regeneration Tour, with contemporaries such as Howard Jones, Andy Bell of Erasure, and Berlin. The band's continuing activity has included tours in Europe in 2015 and 2016.<ref name=sharp2015/><ref name=murray/>

As part of a "Totally '80s" show that toured Australia in July 2016, Doroschuk performed as Men Without Hats without other band members, "singing with the house band...[to] set the stage for a proper visit with the full band".<ref name=timeout-sydney/> In October 2016, prior to a European tour, Sho Murray replaced Love as guitarist.<ref name="murray"/><ref name="jlove"/>

On January 28, 2020, Ivan announced that he was working on a follow-up to Love in the Age of War, to be titled Again (Parts 1 and 2).<ref name=FB2020/> A new lineup of the band recorded the two studio albums in Vancouver between July 2020 and January 2021, to be released separately in 2021 and 2022 on the band's new label, Sonic Envy.<ref name=Dunlevy2020/><ref name=sonicenvy/> Twelve new original songs were recorded for Again (Part 2), which included "Heaven", a song written in 1985 and performed on the Freeways tour but never recorded in the studio. The five-song Again (Part 1) EP includes a collection of cover songs and a "re-invention" of "Safety Dance" titled “No Friends of Mine".<ref name=sonicenvy/> The band announced tour dates beginning in June 2021, with a lineup consisting of Ivan on lead vocals and electronics, Colin Doroschuk on vocals, guitar, and keyboards, and Sho Murray on guitar.<ref name=Dunlevy2020/><ref name=Pickard2021/> Colin’s daughter, soprano Sahara Sloan, provided additional vocals on the recording.<ref name=sonicenvy/>

In 2024, Men Without Hats toured as part of the Abducted by the 80's tour across the US and Canada with fellow 80s acts Wang Chung, The Motels, and Naked Eyes,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> as well as the Totally Tubular Festival with Tom Bailey, Thomas Dolby, and others.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Members

Current members

• Ivan Doroschuk – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, synths, drum programming (1977–1993, 2002–2003, 2010–present)
• Colin Doroschuk – vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass (1979–1986, 1990–1993, 2020–present)
• Sho Murray – guitar (2016–present)
• Adrian White – drums (2018–present)
• Sahara Sloan – vocals, keyboards (2023–present)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Former members

This listing may include a number of session musicians for whom actual membership in the band cannot be confirmed. Template:Div col

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:05 right:0 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1977 till:{{#time:d/m/Y}} TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:5 start:1977 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1977

Colors =

 id:Lead          value:red    legend:Vocals
 id:Backing       value:pink   legend:Backing_vocals
 id:Guitar        value:green  legend:Guitar
 id:Keyboard      value:purple legend:Keyboards
 id:Bass          value:blue   legend:Bass
 id:Drums         value:orange legend:Drums
 id:Lines         value:black  legend:Studio_album
 id:bars          value:gray(0.95)

BackgroundColors = bars:bars

LineData =

 at:20/03/1982 color:black layer:back
 at:01/03/1984 color:black layer:back
 at:29/06/1987 color:black layer:back
 at:01/10/1989 color:black layer:back
 at:30/04/1991 color:black layer:back
 at:25/11/2003 color:black layer:back
 at:22/05/2012 color:black layer:back
 at:11/03/2022 color:black layer:back

BarData =

 bar:Ivan    text:"Ivan Doroschuk"
 bar:Pete    text:"Pete Seabrooke"
 bar:Stefan  text:"Stefan Doroschuk"
 bar:Roman   text:"Roman Martyn"
 bar:Tracy   text:"Tracy Howe"
 bar:Felix   text:"Félix Matte"
 bar:John2   text:"John Kastner"
 bar:James   text:"James Love"
 bar:Sho     text:"Sho Murray"
 bar:Colin   text:"Colin Doroschuk"
 bar:Jeremie text:"Jérémie Arrobas"
 bar:Lysanne text:"Lysanne Thibodeau"
 bar:Gabriel text:"Mike Gabriel"
 bar:Allan   text:"Allan McCarthy"
 bar:Lenny   text:"Lenny Pinkas"
 bar:Heidi   text:"Heidi Garcia"
 bar:Louise  text:"Louise Dawson"
 bar:Mark    text:"Mark Olexson"
 bar:Rachel  text:"Rachel Ashmore"
 bar:Sahara  text:"Sahara Sloan"
 bar:Dave    text:"Dave Hill"
 bar:Al      text:"Al Gunn"
 bar:Marika  text:"Marika Tjelios"
 bar:John    text:"John Gurrin"
 bar:Denis   text:"Denis Toupin"
 bar:Richard text:"Richard Samson"
 bar:Michel  text:"Michel Langevin"
 bar:Adrian  text:"Adrian White"

PlotData =

 width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
 bar:Ivan    from:start      till:01/03/1993 color:Lead
 bar:Ivan    from:start      till:01/03/1993 color:Keyboard width:7
 bar:Ivan    from:start      till:01/03/1993 color:Guitar   width:3
 bar:Ivan    from:01/01/2002 till:01/12/2003 color:Lead
 bar:Ivan    from:01/01/2002 till:01/12/2003 color:Keyboard width:7
 bar:Ivan    from:01/01/2002 till:01/12/2003 color:Guitar   width:3
 bar:Ivan    from:01/06/2010 till:end        color:Lead
 bar:Ivan    from:01/06/2010 till:end        color:Keyboard width:7
 bar:Ivan    from:01/06/2010 till:end        color:Guitar   width:3
 bar:Stefan  from:01/01/1979 till:01/05/1990 color:Guitar
 bar:Stefan  from:01/03/1980 till:01/12/1980 color:Bass
 bar:Stefan  from:01/10/1986 till:01/05/1990 color:Bass     width:7
 bar:Stefan  from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Bass
 bar:Stefan  from:01/01/2002 till:01/12/2003 color:Guitar
 bar:Stefan  from:01/01/1979 till:01/03/1993 color:Lead     width:3
 bar:Stefan  from:01/01/2002 till:01/12/2003 color:Lead     width:3
 bar:Roman   from:01/03/1980 till:01/11/1980 color:Guitar
 bar:Tracy   from:01/11/1980 till:01/12/1980 color:Guitar
 bar:Felix   from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Guitar
 bar:John2   from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Guitar
 bar:James   from:01/06/2010 till:23/10/2016 color:Guitar
 bar:James   from:01/06/2010 till:23/10/2016 color:Bass     width:7
 bar:James   from:01/06/2010 till:23/10/2016 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Pete    from:start      till:01/01/1979 color:Guitar
 bar:Dave    from:start      till:01/01/1979 color:Bass
 bar:John    from:start      till:01/01/1979 color:Drums
 bar:Colin   from:01/01/1979 till:01/10/1986 color:Keyboard
 bar:Colin   from:01/01/1979 till:01/10/1986 color:Guitar   width:7
 bar:Colin   from:01/01/1979 till:01/10/1986 color:Lead     width:3
 bar:Colin   from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Keyboard
 bar:Colin   from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Guitar   width:7
 bar:Colin   from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Lead     width:3
 bar:Colin   from:28/01/2020 till:end        color:Keyboard
 bar:Colin   from:28/01/2020 till:end        color:Guitar   width:7
 bar:Colin   from:28/01/2020 till:end        color:Lead     width:3
 bar:Jeremie from:01/01/1979 till:01/11/1980 color:Keyboard
 bar:Jeremie from:01/01/1979 till:01/11/1980 color:Drums    width:3
 bar:Lysanne from:01/03/1980 till:01/11/1980 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Lysanne from:01/03/1980 till:01/11/1980 color:Keyboard
 bar:Gabriel from:01/11/1980 till:01/02/1982 color:Keyboard
 bar:Allan   from:01/12/1980 till:01/10/1984 color:Keyboard
 bar:Al      from:01/10/1984 till:01/10/1986 color:Bass
 bar:Denis   from:01/10/1984 till:01/10/1986 color:Drums
 bar:Marika  from:01/10/1986 till:01/05/1990 color:Bass
 bar:Marika  from:01/10/1986 till:01/05/1990 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Richard from:01/10/1986 till:01/05/1990 color:Drums
 bar:Lenny   from:01/10/1984 till:01/05/1990 color:Keyboard
 bar:Heidi   from:01/10/1986 till:01/05/1990 color:Keyboard
 bar:Michel  from:01/05/1990 till:01/03/1993 color:Drums
 bar:Louise  from:01/06/2010 till:28/01/2020 color:Keyboard
 bar:Louise  from:01/06/2010 till:28/01/2020 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Mark    from:01/06/2010 till:22/05/2012 color:Keyboard
 bar:Mark    from:01/06/2010 till:22/05/2012 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Rachel  from:22/05/2012 till:28/01/2020 color:Keyboard
 bar:Rachel  from:22/05/2012 till:28/01/2020 color:Backing  width:3
 bar:Sho     from:24/10/2016 till:end        color:Guitar
 bar:Adrian  from:01/01/2018 till:end        color:Drums
 bar:Sahara  from:01/01/2023 till:end        color:Keyboard
 bar:Sahara  from:01/01/2023 till:end        color:Backing width:3

</timeline>

Discography

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}}

Studio albums

• Rhythm of Youth (1982)
• Folk of the 80's (Part III) (1984)
• Pop Goes the World (1987)
• The Adventures of Women & Men Without Hate in the 21st Century (1989)
• Sideways (1991)
• No Hats Beyond This Point (2003)
• Love in the Age of War (2012)
• Again, Part 2 (2022)

External links

• Template:Official website (2012–present)
• Original official website (2001–2004)
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• Template:Imdb name
• Lazlo's Discography Machine: Men Without Hats
• Jérémie Arrobas official site
• 2012 interview for Innerviews
• Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
• Article at canadianbands.com